On Saturday (7.14.18) our church had their annual Serve Day.
Outreach is not everyone’s spiritual gift (it’s not mine), but our pastor strongly encourages the congregation to participate one Saturday of the year and serve their community. It’s an effort that has motivated hundreds of churches across the country and the globe (over 900 to be exact). Across Alabama, you’d see thousands of red shirts doing yard work, cleaning schools, remodeling houses, cooking meals, visiting hospitals, dancing with young kids, and so much more. It’s inspiring and so much fun to hear the stories at church the next morning! Oh, and you can always count on spending a little extra time scrolling on Instagram just looking at the photos people post 😛
Last year for Serve Day was or first with a kiddo, and we were outside in the heat and humidity which did not provide our family good results. Since we have so many friends in the same predicament, Aaron and I decided to lead a project this year indoors. We had everyone meet at our home and clearly stated that kids were welcome to help or play in our living room.
Our project was making cards and treats for the nurses in Labor / Delivery at a couple hospitals in Birmingham. It is a very thankless job and after doing a similar project as a Highlands College requirement (create and lead two serve projects) and giving them to the nurses when we welcomed Emmaline, we saw and heard the deep appreciation and decided it was totally worth doing again for Serve Day.
Outreach may not be my spiritual gift, but hosting definitely is! I baked some banana bread the night before and pulled out some fruit and juice to offer those serving with us.
We pulled out our new red shirts, including the kids one we got for Rylie – which involved me rolling it up, tying it in the back with a ponytail holder and tying ribbons to hold the over sized sleeves up – and I found a plain red onesie for Emmaline to wear. Oh, and I put Rylie’s hair in a ponytail for the first time. Can we just take a moment to talk about how stinking cute it is!? All the heart eyes <3
We had a total of 8 adults and 8 kiddos serving our project. The ladies stuck to making the cards and Aaron headed up the baking.
Having the option for the children to play in the living room was perfect and a huge blessing to us mamas who still wanted to serve.
I told Rylie while I was getting her ready that morning what Serve Day was about and told her, “you can serve today too by being a great hostess to the other kids and sharing your toys and books.” She rocked it!
By 12pm, everyone started packing up and thanking us for hosting. Our campus was having an after-party, so we packed up the girls and headed out. Rylie was so exhausted though, she fell asleep on the way there (while holding on to the balloons from Summer Blast hahaha).
A few hotdogs later, we got a family picture! 🙂
The Shaver crew rockin #serveday18
We led our first serve project where we made cards and treats for labor /delivery nurses to encourage them in a very thankless job.
Also, my kids are not a fan of the Alabama summer heat 😅
At the pavilion there was a mister which many of the kids were running through. Rylie was pretty oblivious to this until Grammy walked through it. Next thing I knew, Rylie was running back and forth, laughing and soaking wet! Good thing we always keep a change of clothes in her bag 😛
I’d like to also point out that in her right hand there is a very, very, very soggy hotdog bun 😛
Mama + Dadda said I could serve by being a great hostess and sharing my toys and books when the kids came over to help with the project. 👌🏻
But my favorite part of the day was running through the mister at the after party 💦
When the after party was over, we spent the evening at Rick + Michelle’s. After a yummy dinner, we headed home so everyone could wash the day off and get to bed for an early morning at church.
The message our pastor shared the next morning was phenomenal and definitely a great challenge to stay in this attitude of serving. He titled it “Not On Our Watch!” I encourage you to check it out!
The Creative Team also put together a highlight video of Serve Day 2018 that had me tearing up 🙂
https://vimeo.com/280054788
As always, Serve Day was amazing and it was such an honor to get to play a party in it.